Age of Chivalry is a total conversion for Half-Life 2 currently being developed by Team Chivalry. We are a close group of friends who are dedicated to creating a fun story driven multiplayer experience set in a fantasy world in the medieval ages. We are creating a fast paced and fun first person melee combat system that will take the player to a new level of immersion. The players will be able to take part in sieges, town raids and open war in a story driven game. Our goal is to let the players write the history of the game as the teams battle it out over a sequence of user controlled map cycles depending on the victor. We want to take the overall experience to a new level of fun. All of our members have a solid modding background and we hope that you support our modification as it grows and develops!

Now that the Mod of the Year contest has finished and the winners have been revealed, it seems like the popular choices of the year were the realistic military shooters of the multiplayer variety. While most enjoy a good shooter that focuses on tactical realism, I can say with great certainty that I'm burned out on the genre for a while. I've logged many hours playing the top 5 of this year to see what all the winners had to offer and while they are all worthy, it was almost too much of a good thing.

Taking nominations from the staff and doing some digging myself, I've come up with a list of shining gems from our very own database. The list focuses on projects that have been pushed to the sidelines in a flood of constant media and news updates, yet merit some of their own time under the spotlight. Each of them embodies the overall spirit of modding in their effort to introduce new concepts and gaming experiences. You might also notice that this year there are no specific awards or ranking. ModDB has done away with the categorization this year to just focus on the gaming experience that each offering provides (or hopes to provide). Most of all, we tried to represent the many facets of the modding community with these choices, including the quality and variety available. Without further ado, here are the 2007 Editor's Choice winners:

(Unreleased: Doom 3, Singleplayer)
Mind is one man's journey through the minimalistic spaces in his own head as he tries to comprehend the dire situation he's placed in. At least, that what I gathered from the information provided:

"Your name is Jack and you're under arrest. They say you were on drugs. They say you killed your wife. All you know is the back of the police car smells like vomit. Maybe you are on drugs because now you're seeing things .... and suddenly ... you're very ... tired...."

In any case, Mind promises to be a puzzle oriented game with no firearms involved. The only weapons being your fists, flares and some telekinesis thrown in for good measure. The footage below shows the unique style and situations they are aiming for. The aesthetics of the level design concentrate the focus on a surreal environment where anything can happen. Mind is being put together on the ID Tech 4 Engine accompanied with an original soundtrack. So far, the release date is unannounced, but we look forward to Mind bringing us an intellectually challenging experience.

(Unreleased: Half Life 2, Singleplayer/Multiplayer)
Inspired from a custom RPG board game made from the creators in 1998, E.Y.E. is an evolution of a concept that the development team has been shaping for years. What does E.Y.E. stand for? I have no idea, but they are group of elite rebel warriors trained in "cyber and parapsychic arts" that fight against the oppressive multi-planetary government referred to as the 'Federation'.

Equal parts RPG and FPS, E.Y.E. will not only incorporate single player and multiplayer but tie the two together, presumably through some sort of character progression. Released footage is almost 6 months old, but shows an encouraging amount of polish with their own adept AI system included as well. One can only assume that a possible beta is on the horizon. This mod goes above and beyond the task of just creating another point-and-shoot clone. It aims to create a wholly unique experience on the Source platform.

(Half Life 2, Multiplayer)
Disrupt the blackness of space with dizzying space combat. Invade and conquer the opposing faction's capital ship before they can do the same to you. Eternal Silence brings a welcome change to the shooter genre by intertwining it with a healthy dose of space sim. It allows for two different game archetypes to co-exist within the same space and pulls it off with grace. While this mod has its dedicated group of small players, it surprises me that it isn't more popular considering its more than just your ground troop warfare variety. The Eternal Silence team themselves have been releasing a steady stream of updates and it sounds like they are in the final stages of a major update. In the meantime though, do yourself a favor (if you own Half-Life 2) and check this one out.

(C&C Generals Zero Hour, Singleplayer/Multiplayer)
Fans of the Command & Conquer series have always enjoyed variety within their games and Shockwave certainly delivers on that point. A plethora of new units and 3 brand new generals await you here. Shockwave hearkens back to the old days of modding when not everything had to be a total conversion and players were just happy with adding on to an existing experience. Unit and general diversity adds even more customization and options that allow you to further tailor your play style. Compete online or tackle the new challenge maps made with each of the new generals in mind. Custom made sound effects, music and particles also compliment the new additions to this mod. All of this makes C&C Generals: Shockwave a must have.

(Half Life 1, Singleplayer)
Paranoia manages to look, sound and play great. The kicker here is: it's doing it on the Half Life 1 engine. While the technical merits alone allow Paranoia to compete for attention amongst its current generation rivals, the team has also made good on the overall narrative and pacing within this single player offering. The story puts you in the role of a Russian officer in the secret service as you and your squad mates end up exploring an underground genetic laboratory. The build up to the climax is great, you actually feel like you're interacting with characters and everything is routine until things go awry. While I did encounter some minor problems with the AI, Paranoia is worth a download as it manages to comes close to putting together a complete package.

(Half Life 2, Multiplayer)
Take a step back into the past when combat was a lot more personal and the armor considerably more shiny (and heavier). Age of Chivalry forces you to holster the firearms so prevalent in most mods and dispatch of your foes medieval style - with swords, bows, maces, and daggers. The map rotation is preset to follow a campaign which links all of the maps together. Style points are given to the presentation in this mod. Crisp textures and good use of shaders make the characters and environments truly stand out. Everything from the dynamic lighting on viewmodels to the blood speckled weapons make hacking and slashing with your friends all the more enjoyable. Thanks to Age of Chivalry for taking multiplayer mayhem to the medieval ages.

(Half Life 2, Singleplayer)
Flipside is all about guiding a mental institution escapee to freedom. The one twist, and likely reason for your incarceration, is the way the main character changes his perception of the environment. One minute you may be strolling through a meadow spotted with cheery bunnies and sun shining brightly, the next you're in a dark, dreary wasteland full of killer bees. The mod is short on length but challenging. Flipside is the result of an attempt to expand and challenge the conventional standards. Granted, the light/dark mirrored world game mechanic has been done before but not on the Source engine. The same can be said of the paper cutout visuals and the platforming. Flipside succeeds at creating a bold experience that stands out on the Source platform.

(Company of Heroes, Multiplayer)
Company of Heroes won many awards for being the best of the RTS breed in 2006. While it was officially declared that Company of Heroes Online would only be delivered to China, (any word if it made it there yet?) fans took matters into their own hands and started Europe in Ruins. Europe in Ruins adds persistence to the army you control as you fight battles that decide an overall outcome. Veteran units that stay alive stay with your forces can be summoned in future battles. This places even more value on your units and strategies through discouraging hopelessly desperate rushes. While still early in development, Europe in Ruins now supports the expansion pack for Company of Heroes, Opposing Forces, and plans to include war-maps to track the progress of your side's campaign. For RTS nuts looking to add life to an already amazing game, Europe in Ruins should be a top choice.

(Unreleased: Dark Places Engine, Singleplayer)
When looking at the sparse amount of information concerning The Hunted Chronicles, I was somewhat hesitant giving it the go ahead for an Editor's Choice. That was until I found a bounty of videos for THC on youtube (note: please update your mod profile THC!). The additional videos show the progress that's been made over the last few months and even at this early state, it's apparent this game has the potential to turn me into a screaming ninny (I deal with horror games with about the same aptitude as the infamous MESH). The visuals already show their capability to deliver and if everything else matches up to the same calibre, The Hunted Chronicles will be one experience you won't want to miss. Considering this is the third Hunted game in the series, there's a good chance this will see the light of day. In the meantime, check out the first two:

(Prototype Unreleased I-Novae Engine, Multiplayer)
Infinity doesn't promise the world, it promises the universe. It's a tall order, but with an impressive proprietary engine and an already massive roster of ships, Infinity has garnered a lot of well-wishers in support. Media releases have already boasted seamless transitions from outer space to a procedurally generated planetside and visuals that include a variety of celestial bodies. Those interested in doing so, can already test out the combat prototype themselves. It's hard to even grasp the sense of scale this game will introduce. Everything from planet-sized destroyers to the tiniest escape pod will be incorporated. Infinity will be an online persistent world that does away with the turn based number crunching and instead relies on wits and reflexes to come out as the top gun. Combat, trade, explore and network with others anywhere, truly anywhere, within a virtual universe. Can Infinity deliver?

dude open your eyes tons of people play AoC there is even a tournament set up and a dueling league in the early stages it is a great mod that is just overlooked because people are brainwashed into thinking a first person multi-player game has to be a shooter and i strongly recommend everyone check it out and see the fun that is to be had in the unique way this mod has map objectives and besides this mod has blood, sharp pointy objects, people on fire, arrows flying by your head along with a spear or two, and HELMS DEEP!!! what more could you want. Just wait till the 1.1 release, you ain't seen nothin' yet ^^

and in Eternal Silence true there is more of a cult following to it but it is a great mod also and its a great mod for any sci-fi junkies that love futuristic combat.

Flipside is pretty incredible. I downloaded it after seeing it on this list. I can't believe they went from concept to completion in a month on this. The art is just so charming. It's too bad this is all we'll see of Flipside, because a long and more content rich game would have been amazing.

I never realised Empires was a "realistic military shooter". I'll remember that next time I want to go out and create 20 metres of wall along with turrets and a camera that can track targets through walls. I'll then go around to all the dead people (only if they're friendly) and push them with my calculator until they are alive.

I'll also make sure to give people ammoz, especially if they have no idea what's going on, like this guy - Moddb.com

Mod of the Year Editors Choice
* Design Award
* Graphics Award
* Originality Award
* Audio Award
* Upcoming Mod Award
* Upcoming Indie Award
* Single Player Mod of the Year
* Multiplayer Mod of the Year
* Indie Game of the Year

To me, this is just rushed. No others awards ceremony that tries to mean something would be so stupid as to through its own plan out the window.

Very dissapointed this year. Hope next year goes much, much more smoothly.

This was the approach we had originally planned, however when picking and choosing "best graphics, originality" we found the same candidates kept popping up. The problem we saw with this approach which we didn't anticipate during planning, is that it really limited the mods we could pick and meant many creative deserving titles we wanted to pick missed out. Plus having good graphics, audio, physics etc doesn't necessarily equate to a good mod. We want well rounded mods which are the total package, not a mod which excels at audio but not much else. Finally it saps a little excitement out of the awards when say the mod with best graphics was picked because it has uhh... best graphics?!?

These days a common complaint is that games lack originality (sequel anyone!?) and focus too much on the graphics and not the gameplay. We wanted to show that mods do amazing and different things, hence the switch.

Very well said and Explained INtense..! And as Tatsur0 has said, You cant always please everyone!

Personally I think the Editors Choice Awards has been a good one this year but on the other hand I do see some of where others are coming from as far as solid categories are concerned! I know it can't be easy considering what you've just said, so hopefully this years awards and comments could act as a learning experience and help you come that little bit closer to perfecting the system and maybe we'll see the results of such next year! ;)

Overall though... It's a Good Editors Choice in my opinion! The chosen have earned it! Good Job! ;)

True, I was waiting for a categorized editor's choice list of awards: design, graphics, originality, audio, etc. It's a bit of a shame because Editor's Choice has become now more of a "honorable mention" than a true award, which is a shame!

For mod developers it will help a lot if we could have categorized awards, so that we can know where our mods stand out, and give the work of our contributors and developers proper recognition. Lots of room for improvement for further awards, but who knows, maybe you guys will think about it and redo the Editor's choice awards before it's too late?

I'm also looking forward to infinity, and I hope this list will do its job aswell. If AoC and ES would get more players, I'd be the happiest boy alive. they are my favorite mods for Half-life 2 so far.

Congrats to the winners. Esp. C&C, nice to see something other than an FPS winning.

I like Domipheus, was a bit disappointed. I'm hoping next year we see more follow through with categories. Best Graphics, Best Audio, etc are a nifty idea, though there are some challenges as INtense mentions.

Why not look at some easier categories, like genres? RTS, FPS, Platform, MMO, etc, etc. Wikipedia has a list of other game genres - En.wikipedia.org

I like the list in that it is promoting some of the less mainstream games. But honestly, I thought the editors choices were going to be about "what's the most fun to play" having played AoC, ES and Flipside, i must say that the gameplay for ALL of those isn't very deep at all, fun to play for perhaps an hour or two, but not exactly what I'd call deep.

Good to see that Zero Hour hasn't been totally forgotten about, (though thats not the mod i'd have chosen :P), well done to the shockwave team anyway.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't include unreleased mods either. I'd rather come here and find 5 great new mods to play than 3 great new mods and 3 other mods that I just have to wait for. Whats more, you can't tell fromt the ideas and graphics of a game if the gameplay, that actual "fun" is going to be there at all.

A bit disappointing. I read why you tossed out the category system in a reply already, but it's a real shame. The editor's awards are suppose to show where individual mods shine in specific categories, not just talk about what HL2 mods the editors think should be more popular. Whether or not it makes a mod great, it's nice to see credit given where credit is due. All these things may be required to make up a good mod, but it's very rare for any mod to be composed of the best content in all areas, so why not acknowledge the mods who really strive for excellence in any of the areas and give them credit for their work?

Overall, it really seems like ModDB is going down the drain and the MotY awards is turning into a bit of a joke. The video that was composed for the MotY awards was shoddy at best with terrible voice overs and poor editing. No information was supplied other than a video to acknowledge chosen mods such as it was here for these editors choice. And now these awards aren't even what they were described to be when the contest began. You'd think with these big names sponsoring you that you'd try to improve things, not ruin everything that was working. You've had good ideas (video, the style of award that you gave here, etc.) but they probably should have been in addition to the MotY awards that we all know and have come to expect and much better quality than the poor product you produced.

It very rare for any mod to be composed of the best content in all areas and we believe these mods listed here are the ones that come closest, in 2007, to offering a complete package. The overall objective is to give these mods more attention and get them onto players' lists of mods to try out. Does awarding a mod with the 'best audio award' really make you want to play a mod even more? At the end of the day, the greatest thing you can do for mod teams is recognize their body of work and point more people towards their projects so others can appreciate it. That's what Editor's Choice achieves.

If a mod won the Best Audio award, yes I would try it out, as sound and music is something I pay particular attention to when I play a game, if the sound is poor a game doesn't cut it for me. That's the point of this whole system. As I said, I know no mod achieves the best in all these categories, however you should acknowledge when a mod achieves great things in any category as some people play a mod for their gameplay, some for the graphics, some for the music and sounds, some for the originality of it, etc. That's what is so great about gaming, it covers so many areas that it can cater to an infinite amount of audiences depending on how a game is made.

100% agreed..! The VO on BtRL is in my opinion better than some of what you would expect from an official paid for title, never mind a free for all beta by an unofficial team! Very professionally done in my opinion and deserves all the praise and cred it gets! ;)

If you like BSG you NEED to try Infinity, it is one of the most amazing Indie games ever. Its like they are working for perfection, I would buy it if they slapped a 30 buck price tag on it (50 dollars is to much, i not made of green!).

Honestly, MOTY was a major disappointment and daresay failure this year. Certainly Player's Choice lacked diversity, but at least that was to be expected. But not Editor's Choice. This is nothing more than a reaction to the players' picks - and a poor one at that. It still fails to be representative of the different engines and genres of the Top 100.

Why is representation important? I've been modding for a long time and I can say from experience that it's a lot easier to produce a FPS than, say, a RPG or an RTS. Not only that, but you'll get better results in terms of graphics (the most important selling factor) because of the camera position. You cannot, after all, screenshot the AI. It's no surprise that the vast majority of winners on both sides are shooters, because there were no categories to ensure anything else.

Furthermore, it's much harder to mod a game with no SDK opposed to one that gives you free reign. Again, this is from having done both. The engine I'm currently working on has no source code access, you cannot alter the main style of gameplay, and there's no control over the interface. As a result, I've had to scrap about half of the ideas I come up with because they're just plain impossible to implement. That's not lack of originality - that's lack of SDK. But I guess starting with a GOTY pretty much makes you a shoe-in for MOTY.

In a community of gamers, it's a travesty that you've been unable to ensure balance in a simple awards competition. I hope that drastic changes are made to the event next year - and prior to the results - on threat of becoming trivialized.

I'll agree on the trivialized part, but FPS aren't the easiest games to make as opposed to adventure games. It's obvious that FPS mods are designed purely out of popularity not out of ease else moddb would be loaded with adventure games..

Popularity is what is killing the diversity hence why player's choice is so unbalanced. The editor's choice is a lot more accurate as it rewards the projects that have made major contributions to the site, I think a majority of the mods on this list have done that as opposed to player's choice.

I disagree in this point. FPS games are easier to make. They compose of a few things only: a set of guns, some linear maps, some mobs spawning in at predictable times, keycard hunting sequences, maybe a few cutscenes. Most of those things are already in the game you mod for included. The only tricky part is to get weapons balanced so people don't pick all the same gun in the end. Story is usually a no-go since FPS are about shooting things ( which is wrong but this is the major consense about it ). If you want to make for example an adventure you need a real good plot, clever maps which are especially not linear, good puzzles which are not so easy to build, interaction with your environment and people, very good characters since this makes or breaks the mood.

Hence for an FPS just make a gun and something to shoot at and you have 50% of the job already done. For other genre types it takes much more before you have something on the dishes.

You are saying what a "Good adventure game" is, I was just saying make an adventure game. Take Day Of the Tentacle for instance, its incredibly linear. The story was excelent though due to its simplistic zany style, it doesn't get bogged down like adventure games. The fact that adventure games require less thought to game play compared to FPS is what really makes me think they are easier (since you are playing the game strictly for the story as opposed to FPS which is for the gameplay)

Maybe we should agree that FPS and Adventure games are just as easy as each other.. so why then are FPSes more popular to make games for? because the majority of the demographics appear to be action junkies that don't like to think when they play games.

This is why I suggested that FPSes are made purely out of popularity and this is why adventure games aren't made as much anymore. I'm having trouble grasping that most of the old genre's are now Niches.

and yet an adventure game is just an FPS set to third person and given mainly melee weapons, whats so much harder about that? an RPG?- FPS's already have stats, they're just not shown to the player. It's possible for a FPS to have a good plot too, look at games like XIII. It's also possible for adventure games to have ****** plots, look at games like Mario, God of War, Shadow of the Collosus (numerous types of adventures, but i think they all boil down to it in the end, don't they?) And yet, a plot isn't neccessary for a good game even, as evident by most of the above mentioned, and even silly games like tetris and bejeweled

All in all it's no ones place to say what is the hardest to make, although if i had to throw in my vote it would be RTS for finding good balance.

Regarding Chandler's comment about modding with no SDK, don't! It's just not worth it. Why would you willingly limit yourself to that situation? There are lots of games out there that have SDKs available and encourage modding. Why would you support developers who don't support the modding community by developing a mod for their game?

Because of legal entanglements with IP use. But the fact of the matter is that Petroglyph actually does support modding - up until you get to the source code. The engine just wasn't designed around being extensible that way. My point, however, is that such things should be taken into consideration in the contest instead of just assuming that every game is as versatile as Half-Life and that mod developers who don't take full advantage of said versatility, whether real or not, are therefore "unoriginal".